Guidelines for Which Division Your Middle School Debaters Should Enter

The short version is that middle school coaches can now decide where their students belong since you know your students best. If they are debating in the same division as last year (say Novice), they have to move up to the next division once they have finished among the top 3 teams more than once this year. The Rookie Division is available for new schools as the easiest access point – for your debaters who join later in the year or for your debaters who need to stay in a more scaffolded, accessible, supportive and competitive environment with very restricted argument limits for longer due to confidence or other learning challenges.

In order of challenge and experience (low to high), our divisions are:

• Rookie
• Novice
• Junior Varsity
• Varsity